I think what Poch is trying to do is change the mindset of the players, so they realise the responsibility they have. He left it to them to choose a captain - and rightly so. They have the power to change it on the pitch, and any adversity they face now ironically will help him achieve his aim of steeling them against future adversity by making them accountable. If they sink, then they haven't the right attitude. This season really is transitional, not just finishing 6th instead of 5th. The work Poch is doing I believe is to rid this club of failure being acceptable.Fuck. Well, I'm at the stage where I'm almost completely apathetic to the fortunes of this club, but thankfully this thread has got me riled up again. Last time I just thought "fuck it, I'm out" was after we lost the last of our 8 games (2 points) against Stoke under Ramos. Even under AVB I maintained some hope and thought we weren't in too bad a shape.
Poch's attitude in interviews worries me. He can't decide whether we have an attitude problem - "Spurs attitude not weak" following Asteras 2-1 game, "Spurs mentality needs to change" (I'm paraphrasing) after this game. He looks broken, clueless and out of his depth. Still doesn't know our best side. Makes the wrong guy captain and continues to give him game time, when, let's be honest, most of us knew last season he was past his best. Doesn't implement the style of play that got him the job in the first place.
Lloris is pretty much the only player that deserves his place in the side this season, and should be our captain. I can only hope he's so settled here he's willing to stay, unfortunately he's getting that "he's too good for us" vibe a la Berba, Modric and Bale, and deserves better.
Kaboul has had enough slating here already, but he's basically not up to it, shouldn't be our first choice defender and couldn't marshal a defence if his life depended on it. Vertonghen would do well with a decent leader alongside him. Fazio I think has had his share of cockups, but I think given time could be very good for us. He was captain for Sevilla after all, would communicate well with Poch, and from where I sat at the Etihad, while Kaboul was running around aimlessly getting torn to shreds, Fazio was the only one trying to organise our defence and was having to shout at Kaboul, telling him what to do. I really want to see Davies given game time in the PL and can't see why he doesn't get a fair crack ahead of the error-prone Rose. Walker can't come back from injury quick enough.
Our midfield completely lacks shape. Mason's doing a great job of being our box-to-box at the minute, but Capoue is uninspiring and a fit Sandro would have been far better. We need a real nasty **** in the middle of the park, someone Parker or Sandro-esque. I'd also bring Chadli, suprisingly one of our best players this season, into the middle rather than out wide, and put him in behind a striker. Which striker, I really just don't know. Eriksen's been a disappointment this season, which I can only assume is down to him being played incorrectly or not being trained well enough. Playing as the tip of a midfield 3 in 4-3-3 is clearly his best position, but one I can't see us properly implementing any time soon. Our wingers are just crap (Chadli excepted) and I would happily sack the lot of them off.
Ade has got lazy, Soldado is Soldado, and Kane isn't the answer in the PL.
How the hell do we fix all this? We need a manager and coaching squad with big bollocks, a leader in defence, a decent defensive midfielder, a striker or two who can consistently score, and some wingers who can actually create some chances. Is that going to happen? Doubt it...
When I was an athlete, in my younger days, we would have seriously hard training periods, they could be mental. And I enjoyed it. However, the extra hard periods were never mixed with the periods in which we had to perform in competitions. Peaking the form often went hand in hand with planning easier training sessions. So...
I think what Poch is trying to do is change the mindset of the players, so they realise the responsibility they have. He left it to them to choose a captain - and rightly so. They have the power to change it on the pitch, and any adversity they face now ironically will help him achieve his aim of steeling them against future adversity by making them accountable. If they sink, then they haven't the right attitude. This season really is transitional, not just finishing 6th instead of 5th. The work Poch is doing I believe is to rid this club of failure being acceptable.
I think this approach does take balls, he is putting his on the line by trying to get the players to realise what they need. In two years time if he succeeds I wouldn't be surprised to see the lines of Eriksen and Lamela thanking him for their development.I think the manager (head coach, whatever) needs more guts than that. He should be there to tell the side what to do, and to hell with them if they don't agree. Just because they're all mates with Kaboul and want him as their captain doesn't mean he should be, especially when he's barely deserving of being on the pitch. It's all very well and good having a (yet another) "transitional season" and letting the players learn from their mistakes, but this is the Premier League. On current form we're honestly flirting with relgation. We've won 8 points since August, that's just not good enough and we can't let it slide any longer.
Poch does not need to go. We cannot go on as we have.
The problem is not the managers, all of them, there is one constant here over the past few years... it certainly isnt the managers/coaches
I think this approach does take balls, he is putting his on the line by trying to get the players to realise what they need. In two years time if he succeeds I wouldn't be surprised to see the lines of Eriksen and Lamela thanking him for their development.
Not sure if this has been posted, but a good read nonetheless
http://theprolounge.com/the-many-crimes-of-enic-and-daniel-levy
Not sure if this has been posted, but a good read nonetheless
http://theprolounge.com/the-many-crimes-of-enic-and-daniel-levy
Not sure if this has been posted, but a good read nonetheless
http://theprolounge.com/the-many-crimes-of-enic-and-daniel-levy
Levy is 90% blame for this mess, we are probably partly to blame for making the most toxic atmosphere in WHL for 20 years and then we can apportion the remainder through some of the players
For me any manager is destined to come into Spurs and struggle under the present structure. In some sort of capacity, be it our strategies for purchasing players, in house politics behind the scenes - too many cooks etc, or just the culture within the Club. No matter, a manager will come in, and even do well to a point or for a certain length of time before one of the above gets the better of him.
I honestly believe the way we are set up is now the problem, and we're regressing under this model. Its served us well to a point and we've struck gold a few times but there's too much emphasis now on trying to sign the next biggest thing, in terms of resale, and its far outweighing the needs of the team.
I just get the feeling that we're collecting players with a view to selling on the ones that really multiply in value whilst trying to tread water with the rest, and even worse Levy charging his managers with unrealistic aims given our resources compared to our competitors.
I understand we have our place in the food chain and we have to be smart in the transfer market in an attempt to bridge the gap with those above us and all that jazz, but there's something incredibly hollow about the Club right now. You hear many fans saying they can't relate with any of the players and I understand that. Where are they? No King anymore, no Dawson...not even a Parker/fit Sandro type that any fan would appreciate the commitment of. Not even a special connection with the more gifted types...Berbatov, Modric, VDV, Bale etc. Nada.
There's no real core to this group of players, no backbone or spine to the team. Its just a collection of semi talented individuals, in some cases, slung together and most of them don't understand what it takes to be successful in this League - and the ones that do, like Lennon and Kaboul etc are past their best.
The more we change manager the more disruption we're going to see, and the more the revolving door will be in motion with players coming and going. Some of these players need to be offloaded, there's no doubt about that though.
We're powder puff at the moment, all over the pitch and we have a manager who is struggling.
For the love of God, we need to give the manager the backing he needs. Any manager, be it Pochettino or whoever, hopefully Pochettino IMO.
Pochettino was probably given the job because he was the most receptive to getting the best out of what already was here. Well that doesn't look good at the moment. But its like a snowball effect, one manager's premise is inheriting and being charged with the mess that's been left from before.
All I know is that I would give the manager a healthy degree of control over team affairs. And that doesn't mean being irresponsible and letting them do this and that, and then spending irresponsibly because of it or anything like that. Just a healthy degree of control over all things concerning the team and shaping it to his liking. Not giving him the next carlos kick the ball because Baldini has said he'll go for as much as Bale in three years.
That's the fucking problem for me. We've no identity whatsoever.
Levy has got a lot right in the transfer market and we have gained from that, no doubt about it. But its time to restore some balance to 'team needs'. There's being clever, and there's being too fucking clever IMO.
Will you be happy next year when he is continuing to implement his philosophy in the Championship? We thought we were going to be playing a high intensity pressing game...what we have seen so far has been nothing of the sort. If he wants to drop Vertoghen and play Fazio, as well as playing Rose ahead of Davies then something is very wrong at the club. All the players that have been quietly frozen out, particularly Lennon and Paulinho must be laughing themselves silly at this joker. The club is rotten to the core and all the fans know it.